


Fragments II

by Monochromely



Series: Fragments [2]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-15
Updated: 2019-05-20
Packaged: 2019-10-29 07:26:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 70
Words: 7,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17803637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Monochromely/pseuds/Monochromely
Summary: 150 drabbles, 100 words each. || Fragments from Steven's universe.[Prompts temporarily closed.]





	1. New

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, folks! In celebration of reaching a follower milestone on Tumblr, I thought it was about time that I kicked off "Fragments II." c:
> 
> For new readers, ["Fragments"](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15949364/chapters/37194083) was a project where I wrote 100 Steven Universe drabbles that were 100 words each. I had so much fun tackling characters that I ordinarily don't get the chance to write about, and what's more, got multiple opportunities to improve my _own_ writing as I tried to figure out how to constrain something meaningful into 100 words. 
> 
> For "Fragments II," I honestly have similar goals in mind. I can't wait to write about this world in light of all that we've learned since "Diamond Days," and I'm v. invested in the idea of getting better at the 100 word drabble. Sometimes, in "Fragments," I didn't get it perfect. I rushed an ending, or I couldn't find the right words.
> 
> "Fragments II" isn't necessarily about getting it perfect, but it's about getting close.
> 
> So anyway, feel free to send in prompts! I'm so excited to see what you guys come up with.
> 
> —
> 
>  _Prompt_ : how about something with lars and sadie ?

On the now abandoned stage, Captain Lars and Sadie Killer sit side by side and watch the sun sink into the ocean.

Their pinky fingers touch.

The world feels big enough to swallow them whole.

“You were amazing out there,” Lars says, and his eyes shine with the truth of it. “ _Seriously._ I didn’t know you were such a good singer.”

Sadie bats him lightly on the shoulder, protests.

“Ha, you’re just being nice!”

“Pssh,” he grins, “you say that like it’s a bad thing.”

“Nah…”

She thinks on it.

She tugs on a piece of green hair.

“Just new.”


	2. Blue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt:_ Steven spending precious time with his Aunt-Diamonds, please?

“I spy, with my little eye, something… _blue!_ ”

Balanced on top of Blue Diamond’s knees, Steven grins up at the three matriarchs, who stare down at him with varying degrees of fondness and exasperation.

“Blue, _obviously_ ,” Yellow, the exasperated one, says, tilting her dripping hand pointedly at her companion.

“Sorry!" Steven laughs. "Not that she’s not blue, but she’s not what I’m thinking of!”

“Also,” Blue adds wryly, “you’re going to have to stop guessing _me_ at some point. It’s getting quite unimaginative.”

“If not saccharine,” White Diamond smiles innocently.

Oh, Yellow Diamond harrumphs…

(… but she doesn’t deny it either.)


	3. Brave

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt:_ Connie and Priyanka, after CYM.

In this unquiet night, this night of screamed nightmares, golden lamplight spills across Connie Maheswaran.

And Connie Maheswaran spills the truth.

“ _She took his gem,_ Mom.” Her hands and eyes and mouth shake with the horror of it. “He almost died, and I… I couldn’t do anything but watch!”

“You felt useless,” Priyanka surmises quietly.

She skims her hand up and down her daughter’s cold arm.

And doesn’t yell.

Doesn’t betray her own terror wrangling through her like a storm.

“Yes.” 

“And yet, sweetheart, you never turned your back on him.”

“But—”

“But you were _brave_ , and that is enough.”


	4. Processing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt:_ Anything with our Pearl and Yellow or Blue or Pink Pearl

Pearl finds her in Pink’s chambers, kneeling on the empty floor.

Even without White’s touch, her right eye remains cracked.

Broken.

“I lost so much time,” Pink Pearl says without ever looking up. “It feels like I saw her just yesterday.”

Pearl wordlessly kneels next to her, hesitates before placing a pale hand on her shoulder.

“My Diamond pleaded with White to fix me, and Her Radiance said that she would. And that’s… that’s all I can remember.”

Pink blinks slowly.

“And now she’s gone.”

“Yes.”

“And… and she’s never coming back?”

This one is harder.

“… Yes,” Pearl whispers anyway.


	5. Possibility

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt_ : Our Pearl interacts with Yellow Pearl, post-Diamond Days

In the daylight, Yellow Pearl’s fear is scribbled all over her face in fine ink.

It’s a familiar image to Pearl.

A mirror.

“You don’t have to get in if you don’t want to,” she tries gently.

“B-but my Diamond’s in there! I simply must—”

“—attend to her?” Pearl guesses.

(Pearl knows.)

“Exactly! So I need to—“

“Brave waters you’re scared of just to be ignored?”

“It’s my _duty_ to make her happy!”

“Take a look at her!” Pearl laughs, all incredulity. (In the pool, Yellow Diamond smiles— _smiles!_ —at something that Blue said.) “She already is! _You_ could be.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all of the love and support poured on this fic already! 
> 
> You guys are simply wonderful.


	6. Grains

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt:_ Now that we know more about her, I'd like another "something something White Diamond's thoughts?" please

The night is alive with moonlight and stars; violet waves sip the shore. She presses her white fingertips into the sand and comes up only with grains.

This world is so foreign.

So strange.

And so beautiful.

The goddess frowns.

Because her world is so _not_ —is depleted and wasted, a breeding ground for parasitism.

If perfection seemed attainable mere hours ago, it is now dust between her hands, grains and delusions of grandeur.

“I was your leader,” she whispers to no one in particular, “and I failed you.” (She could whisper to so many gems.)

An apology seems insufficient.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lol, after I wrote this one, I realized that it essentially has the same thesis statement as "Stars," a Bellow one-shot I did. Honestly, this might even be its natural counterpart!


	7. Victory

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt:_ Garnet and Pearl reflect on the fact that all the Corrupted Gems are healed.

The night is not quiet, full of celebration and vigor and life.

Because the war has ended, and so many of its casualties have been undone.

Oh, _stars_ —Pearl laughs so hard that she’s crying—it’s over.

(Isn’t it?)

Hands braced on the balcony railing, Garnet looks poised to fly.

“Look at them, Pearl!”

Biggs and Crazy Lace and Snowflake and Coral.

Steven in the middle of them all, saying hi, hello.

“I never thought I’d see this day,” Pearl admits, sniffing loudly.

“It was such a small possibility.”

It was inconceivable.

“But here we are.”

It is happening now.


	8. Difference

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt:_ And something about Blue and/or Yellow thinking about how Steven is different  
> Murder me with my favorite idiot dictators

She told herself that she wasn’t going to draw comparisons, but she’s only learning to be human—it happens anyway.

Steven has her laugh, round and vivacious and full of light.

And her smile, drawn across his face all playful like.

And her burdens.

 _Stars_ , he has those.

They pile on top of his shoulders like kindling; when she or Yellow or White slips up—as they inevitably do—embers languish in the corners of his frown.

Scolded and softened, Blue Diamond tries to be better for him.

It condemns her that she didn’t do the same for Pink.

(Wouldn’t.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aye. ;)


	9. Tricked

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt_ : Something about Holly Blue Agate (maybe trying to reconcile the fact that Steven is Pink Diamond, or what she heard about what went down on Homeworld?)

She thinks it’s a trick at first—some nettlesome Amethyst’s idea to get her riled up.

Holly Blue huffs and harrumphs and discards the notice without so much as a blink.

_(The Alpha space station and human zoo are to be terminated within thirty cycles. Begin phase out preparations immediately.)_

Oh, there have been rumors, of course—stories about giant robots and perverse fusions, tales of the lustrous Diamonds bathing together in a Terran pool.

 _Mere dust_ , she convinces herself.

 _A fool’s dream_ , she won’t be sneering any longer when Blue Diamond arrives, carrying a boy.

A catalyst.

Change reconciled.


	10. Plans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Writer's Choice:_ Lapis and Peridot map out their new home.

On the roof of the beach house—much to Pearl’s fondly exasperated chagrin—Lapis and Peridot make plans for their new barn.

They press their elbows into the corners of the blueprint to keep the wind from blowing it away, and dream of laser cannons and alien aquariums, minimalist meep morps and murals dedicated to Percy and Pierre.

(They dream of home.)

“We can hang hammocks for napping here.” Lapis points at the dead center of the barn’s high ceiling.

“Excellent,” Peridot nods approvingly. “This way, we can drive two automobiles into the wall!”

“Three if we’re feeling creative.”

“Naturally.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so we've reached the first ten fragments!
> 
> Thank you for your outpouring of support on this project. From your comments to your prompts, I've loved being able to engage with you guys, and I'm so glad that I get to do it over and over again for many more fragments to come. c:


	11. Stranger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt:_ Lars reuniting/interacting with his parents.

He stands on his doorstep and fights against the vague sensation that he’s about to announce that he’s dead.

He’s not dead.

(He kind of is.)

He’s just _new_.

(And that’s… that’s not necessarily a bad thing.)

He raises a pink fist and knocks lightly on a door he used to barrel through.

He’s a stranger.

The deadbolt clicks.

He’s a miracle.

The door creaks to a tentative open.

He’s—

“ _Lars_ ,” his mother whispers before throwing her frail arms around his neck. Her fingers tangle themselves in hair that used to be the same color as her own.

“Hi, Mom.”


	12. Articulation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt:_ Connie reuniting with her parents after getting back from space

As often and lyrically and sincerely as Steven had tried, her best friend could never quite fully articulate the moment when his feet finally touched this world again, when he found himself _home_.

_It’s like being jolted out of a bad nightmare._

_Or… or like the rare happy endings on_ Under the Knife _when everyone lives!_

On the beach, Connie digs her shoes into the sand and her fingers into her father’s shirt, and almost cries as her mother’s familiar scent wreathes her like a perfume.

It’s like finishing a scary book.

What pride there is.

“Mom! Dad!”

What relief.


	13. Crush

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt:_ I would love to see Steven being curious about Blue and Yellow's relationship, or teasing Yellow about Blue.

“Don’t be absurd,” Yellow Diamond snaps. “I don’t want to crush Blue.”

Were it not for the golden wash expanding across the bridge of her nose and the cliffside she’s absentmindedly eviscerating beneath her clenched fingertips, Steven might have believed her.

“No, no,” he laughs, a little smug, a little moved. “You _have_ a crush on her.”

“Same difference,” she scoffs.

“Well, no—not really. One means you want to, like, kill her, and the other means that you like her.”

 _“_ I certainly don’t want to kill her!”

“Then that definitely means you like her!”

The Diamond looks positively scandalized.


	14. Business

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt_ : hi !! for the ask prompt, something about biggs and bismuth ?? possibly when they reunite after the whole uncorruption debacle with the diamonds?

Tomorrow and the next day, and weeks and months and years after that, they’ll have time enough to sort through it all.

The puzzle of Rose.

The war.

The breaking point.

(The Breaking Point.)

But in the here and now, in this fountain that their leader once loved, Bismuth wraps her arms around Biggs’s neck and refuses to let go.

They dance in the water.

They laugh and cry and cling.

“Stars,” Biggs hums against her ear. “To think I’ve missed six thousand years of your puns!”

Bismuth’s shining eyes could build cathedrals.

“No worries—I’m back in _Bismuth_ , baby.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When ur gf only knows one (1) pun, but you still want to hear it anyway.


	15. Together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt:_ For a prompt, how about some good ol Rainbow 2.0!

Three Shakespearean monologues, two Sondheim songs, and one scene from the _Mary Poppins_ musical later, Rainbow Quartz 2'0 falls back into the grass and revels in the feeling—that glorious, sweeping sensation—of being present in this world.

Alive, loved, and electric.

A laugh bubbles on their lips, and the sunset bubbles with brilliant color—blue and pink and gold.

“You’re spectacular, love,” they murmur, their hands an unshakeable temple on Rose Quartz’s, on Steven’s gem.

Rainbow slowly blinks their lower eyes, all contentment.

“Takes two to tango,” comes the soft reply. “ _We’re_ spectacular.”

_You are, Pearl._

_I am._

Together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cheers to the first of the month! Hoping for nothing but the best for all of you. <3
> 
> _A couple of quick notes:_
> 
> (1) So _after_ today, I'm going to temporarily close prompts because there's, like, sixty on the list, lol. But if you do have a prompt today, especially one that doesn't involve Connie or Pearl, send it on in! I need to try to stagger the list's diversity a little towards the end.  
> (2) But also, while we're on the subject of musicals—(because there's no way in heck that 2.0 _isn't_ a musical nerd)—do you guys have a favorite? Mine's _Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812!_  
> (3) And finally, I had to stylize 2.0 as 2'0 because AO3 wanted to count 2 and 0 as two words with the decimal, and the way it screwed up the word count was bothering me.


	16. Aftereffects

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt:_ Fusion is legal, how is the general population of Homeworld taking it?

When the proclamation first breaks, Jade and Jade skim hands but dare not fuse in the midst of a crowd that swarms with anger and fear, confusion and misunderstanding.

For they’ve made that mistake before.

And they still remember—they cannot forget—the lightning racing across their gems.

(Oh, how they _burned_.)

Alone, they try to dance—they do—but it’s hard.

Painful even.

A little twirl.

And then a hitched breath.

Hesitant steps and quivering eyes.

Yellow Jade’s lips twist into a devastated smile.

“Five cycles ago, this law would have made me the happiest gem in the world.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the prompts yesterday! You guys gave me some really great ones. 
> 
> But with that, prompts are temporarily closed until I eviscerate my list, lol.


	17. Trying

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt:_ Garnet and Steven teaching Yellow and Blue how to fuse!

Not that Garnet will ever like the Diamonds, but she has to admit, she appreciates that they’re trying.

That they’re on the ballroom floor now, stumbling over one another’s feet and cursing and nagging and holding hands and _trying_.

Trying to understand fusion.

Perhaps wanting to understand each other.

_Trying._

“Relationships take work,” she calls up to them (just as Yellow Diamond snags her fingers in Blue’s hair for the umpteenth time).

“Fusions do!” Steven chips in (as Blue extracts herself with a sigh).

“It’s okay if you don’t get it right the first time… you’re halfway there by trying.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just realized that these last three fragments have been fusion-themed, lol.


	18. Darkness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt:_ Teen!Yellow got sent into the tower! OH NOES.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **TW:** Psychological Abuse

White Diamond hesitates at the entrance, skeletal in the golden light suffusing from the palace hallway.

There will only be darkness when the door finally closes—darkness and formlessness and dereliction.

(Who will Yellow be in the black—if she is even an entity at all?)

(Nothing and worthless and shapeless and—)

— _scared_.

“I don’t punish you because I want to, Sunlight,” the goddess whispers, “but you simply _must_ control those altruistic impulses of yours. I didn’t create you to be merciful.”

The absence of light is beginning to leech away at her already.

“No… you created me to win.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That moment when you realize that the singular window in the tower is lofted up at Yellow and Blue's eye height, not Pink's. :(


	19. Light

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt:_ This could be a prompt mystery girl and girl reuniting after the gems return from space // (Taking the liberty to assume that the prompter meant Pearl, lol.)

The simultaneous rightness and wrongness of it all electrifies Pearl as she gathers her knees to her chest and leans against the windshield of Greg’s Dondai Supremo.

Next to her, close enough to touch, Sabina’s pink hair splays across the glass in waves.

“I was surprised when you called me,” she teases lightly. (Everything is light with her—simple, uncomplicated.) “Thought ya’d chickened out.”

Pearl laughs. ( _Pearl_ is light with her—simple, uncomplicated.)

“Oh,” she smiles, “something to that effect… but when you survive a war that spanned thousands of years, you really run out of excuses to say no.”


	20. Serenity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Writer's Choice:_ Naturally, it was Vidalia who painted Rose's portrait.

It happens in secret—in the dead of night, in the dimly lit studio of Vidalia’s garage.

Brushstroke over solemn brushstroke, she brings Rose Quartz to life on canvas.

The _real_ one is seven months pregnant now.

She’s positively glowing.

(“She’s leaving me,” Greg choked—only once. It’d been the dead of night then, too.)

It’s this memory that ultimately prompts Vidalia to say it: “You look so serene to be dy— _havin’ a baby_.”

Ever the consummate model, Rose doesn’t so much as shift on the stool, her smile clandestine.

Unknowable.

“They’d panic,” she simply says, “if I didn’t.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 20/150! (We're 13% there, folks!)
> 
> Also, while I'm here, something that has absolutely fascinated me about "Fragments II" is the unspoken conversations that exist between you and I—prompter and writer. I look at all of the prompts I've fulfilled so far and all of the prompts on my list to come, and can't help but marvel at the stories you guys have wanted me to tell. 
> 
> For the most part, you've wanted stories of joy and victory and reunion and love—emotions that come at the end of particularly long trial.
> 
> You've wanted growth and recovery, introspection and change.
> 
> You've wanted hope.
> 
> And when you haven't wanted those things, when you've wanted something darker, you've told me that there are hard and hurtful things that deserve to be negotiated in words, too—that there's something to be said about the act of bringing darkness into light.
> 
> (There are a lot of things to be said about such an act, starting with the fact that it's _necessary._ )
> 
> Long ramble short, "Fragments" wouldn't be the same without you, my dudes. Thank you for pushing and prompting me, for trusting me to tell these beautiful stories. 
> 
> It's an honor that I do not take lightly.


	21. Brainstorming

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt_ : Peridot and Yellow bond over technology.

“Hear me out,” Peridot begins, pacing across Yellow Diamond’s palm. “The problem isn’t in the methodology but rather in the execution. We’re inherently parasitic creatures—nothing’s going to change that—but we _can_ adjust our technology so that an injector doesn’t merely take from a planet’s resources.”

Skeptical, but not unwilling, the Diamond hums in thought.

“A dual injector,” she finally says, “could potentially leave gem matter _and_ a specialized sustenance formula.”

“You’re just thinking about economic feasibility,” Peridot snorts.

“And practical realities, mind you!”

(“Nerds,” Amethyst mutters under her breath to Steven, who tries and fails not to laugh.)


	22. Truth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt_ : Steven FINALLY gets some professional help.

He’s not a very good artist, but according to his well meaning but not entirely comprehending of his situation therapist and Bob Ross alike... that’s perfectly okay.

In the studio of Vidalia’s garage, sunlight slanting in through the squared windows, Steven draws White Diamond’s clawed hand out of the darkness and onto a blank page. Her black nails are crayoned in, and he can’t quite capture the manic bend of her fingers or the leering lines of her palm, but that’s okay, too.

“Because this is your truth, kid,” Vidalia had shrugged. “Doesn’t have to be pretty.”

(He almost died.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> @Demonsanddogweeds: Sorry for deviating a little bit! I originally tried to capture a conversation between Steven and a therapist, but then I realized that it'd be hard for me to unpack that kind of nuanced interaction in a fragment. In lieu, I decided to see what I could do with art therapy!
> 
> Also, thank you guys for all of the comments over the past few days. This week's just been crazy, but once I get home for Spring Break, I definitely plan to catch up!


	23. Comb

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt:_ The Epic of Comby!

She first tugged me through her hair when she was a young Diamond, newly erupted from a planet’s core, and I came to life in the silvery threads of her wet hair.

I loved her already; I whispered _hello!_ against her ear.

For years, I embraced her, all teeth, and smoothed her snarls away.

She laughed in the pool.

She cried.

Together, we hummed.

I knew the very shape of her tall hand, and then I didn’t know her at all.

She stopped needing me one cycle.

(Wanting me.)

The yellow walls mourned; they said that she was wasting away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I titled this piece 'Comb' because I'm obviously a v. creative person.


	24. Voices

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt:_ White was told to make things better, who told her that?

Before she is ever White Diamond, shining ruler of Homeworld, she is a primordial sea undone in the darkness: protons and neutrons, stardust and fragments.

She is a collapsing star, falling apart and coming together—gas becoming limbs becoming a skeleton becoming god.

She is an investment of voices.

The atoms that make up her spectral eyes show her a perfect species unfurling across the galaxy—gems upon gems upon countless gems, all of them extensions of her.

 _Recreate yourself,_ the neutrinos shaping her hands insist.

_Again and again._

_You will never be alone as long as you have you._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Double post today to make up for yesterday's absence!! Sorry, friends! Spring Break's making a lazy person out of me, lol. 
> 
> Also, this was a really interesting prompt because I _want_ to believe that there's something or even _someone_ behind White Diamond's psychology. For this piece, though I decided to follow along with the general lines of "Fragments" canon, which points to WD coming from a supernova. Canonically, however, I'm v. interested in knowing if this storyline will ever come to fruition.


	25. Here

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt_ : Can we get something about Steven bonding with Yellow or even White? ... I feel like Yellow and Steven have quite a lot in common. They both had to carry their perspective families on their shoulders when Pink/Rose left.

On the moon base, Yellow Diamond stands before his mother’s mural, hands clasped firmly behind her back.

A statue.

A monolith.

Mourner and mourning.

“We instructed the Spirit Quartz to take liberties with the design,” she says into the silence. “Make her larger than life. More intimidating and angular. _More_ in general.”

It’s almost imperceptible, but her jaw clenches.

“We… _I_ … never accepted her for who she was.”

Her voice constricts.

“I… failed her.”

Pink Diamond’s shadow falls in rosy splinters across Steven’s face.

He softly, he hesitantly leans his head against Yellow’s neck.

“But you're here with me now.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a very specific scene from the show that I'm recalling with this piece. Can you name it?


	26. Reclamation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt:_ You mentioned you were taking prompts, maybe you could do something with the Off Colors trying to adapt to living on Earth and basically being one big goofy family.

Little by little, reclaimed piece by piece, the Off Colors transform the Prime Kindergarten into _home_.

Keen eyed and practical, the Rutile twins design walkways that clamber up from the darkness to find the sun, while Fluorite remains grounded, carving out the hole which will one day become their saltwater pool.

Amethyst and Peridot couldn’t grow flowers, but Rhodonite and Padparadscha cultivate a garden of varicolored stones, red and blue and amber and gold.

(So many different shapes and sizes, too.)

It had been ugly, the Prime Kindergarten—unnatural and perverse.

Homeworld had once said the very same of them.


	27. Pride

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt_ : Connie invites Pearl to her college fencing tournament.

Though she’s seventeen now, Connie Maheswaran still feels like she’s twelve every time she stands across Pearl, who looks the same as she had five years and five millennia ago.

“Well?” The gem’s brow arches expectantly.

In the Sky Arena, memories of them sparring back and forth surround them in a dustless dance.

_Block._

_Parry._

_Thrust!_

Connie wordlessly passes the letter over.

_You try so hard._

Blue eyes skim it; they devour it whole.

_And you do it for you._

“You’re in the tournament?!”

_**I’m** still learning that for myself._

“I’m in, Pearl!”

_I’m so very proud of you, Connie._


	28. Gaps

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt_ : I love the pearls so much, do you think you could do more with them? maybe some h/c? or some bonding time with pink pearl :>

It’s hard, but the royal Pearls try to fill in the gaps for Pink Pearl anyway.

“We were all quite rattled after you… _ah_ … left,” Yellow says. ( _Left_ is not the right word.) “If it makes you feel any better, we snubbed your replacement for eons!”

“Really,” Blue whispers, “you didn’t miss much... this palace has been a tomb for years.”

Pearl takes her to Rose’s fountain one cycle, where they wade into the still waters hand in hand, foot over foot.

“I was so… hurt when she left me,” Pearl finally admits to her reflection.

(Not merely the water.)


	29. Smile

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt:_ Steven takes some new gems to Funland

Much to Harold Smiley’s smiling chagrin, Steven Universe is back—this time with _three_ new alien ladies in tow.

_Three!_

Not that Harold _doesn’t_ like the kid, but damn, he sure is a magnet for accidents that involve the tea cup rides flying off their saucers!

Steven clasps his hands beneath his chin.

“Please, Mr. Smiley? I wanna teach the Pearls what fun is!” He gestures to the trio of little colorful birds—one blue, one pink, one yellow. “Look at them! They’ve never smiled a day in their lives!”

“ _Uh-huh._ Your pink friend’s been smiling since you got here!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy First Birthday, "Fragments"!
> 
> But more importantly, Happy Death Day, Caesar!


	30. Dishes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Writer's Choice:_ Amethyst and Steven do dishes.

Amethyst is testing plates between her teeth when Steven says it.

She isn’t ready.

She didn’t think it’d be _her_ he would eventually talk to.

Thought it’d be Pearl or Greg.

Maybe even Garnet.

The ceramic shatters in her mouth.

He keeps drying the dish in his hand.

(“I thought I was going to die,” he whispered, “when she took my gem.”)

On the front porch, Pearl and Connie are laughing hard over a game of chess.

Amethyst spits out plate.

“That’s rough, buddy.”

“Yeah.”

He places the dish on the drying rack.

Amethyst places an arm on his shoulder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let's do a double today!!
> 
> Thank you guys so much for engaging with "Fragments" the way that you do! We're 20% there now!


	31. Experience

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt:_ Also, I already gave a prompt, but I would love to see you eventually do anything with Peridot!

“Garnet?”

“Mm?”

The night dances across Peridot’s face—starlight on her visor and a midnight blue blush.

“Hypothetically speaking”—she’s not speaking hypothetically at all—“what if I can’t fuse?”

She’s thinking of Opal and Smoky Quartz and Obsidian—their hugeness, their might, their love.

She’s thinking about feet made from tin cans and a failed dance with Garnet beneath the stars.

(She’s drowning in her own inadequacy.)

“What if I’m... _broken_?”

Garnet doesn’t hesitate.

“Nah,” she says quietly. She wraps an arm around Peridot’s shoulders. She smiles. “Fusion is an experience, but not all experiences have to be universal.”

 


	32. Padparadschaism

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt:_ The Off-Colors go to the movies

The first movie they project onto the cliff side—Fluorite can’t fit into the theater and Lars likes this ramshackle setup anyway—is _Infinity War_.

Which was very much a _mistake_ , the teenager quickly learns.

“Captain Lars will cry over the disintegration of the tree called Groot!”

Rhodonite and the Rutiles get a real hoot out of _that_ Padparadschaism, giggling as the Sapphire continues to watch the movie, blissfully oblivious to it all.

 _Assholes_ , he scoffs and sniffs noisily, all indignation, all fondness. 

“Yes, Captain Lars is crying over a tree, dang it, and he’s not ashamed to admit it!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hardcore sobbed over Groot. Also, heading back to college today. (Boo.) When I get settled back in the apartment, the plan is to start working through my inbox again! So sorry for the delay!


	33. Awake

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt:_ Can u do Steven and Connie talking about CYM

“I’m having nightmares,” Connie admits, absently plucking at her violin. “The tower… White Diamond… _you_.”

He’d been small in her arms.

Fragile.

Steven plays a chord on his ukulele.

It’s the quietest, most plaintive G major she’s ever heard.

“To be honest,” he murmurs to the strings, “I’ve been dreaming, too.”

The tower… White Diamond… the gems… those claws—he doesn’t say these things, but he doesn’t have to.

They haunt his very eyes.

Thinking fast, Connie slides her bow through a light note, a lovely one.

“But hey—we’re awake now.”

Steven smiles at her gratefully.

“Eyes wide open.”


	34. Yeet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt_ : Andy finds out what happened to his barn

“Little alien lady...” Andy begins, staring faintly at the gaping pit where his barn used to be.

( _Holy hell, they even got rid of the piping_!)

“Peridot,” the green bean supplies, a mischievous smile tilted at the corners of her mouth. Her pointed hair barely comes up to his elbow.

“Peridot,” he repeats uncertainly, scratching his balding head, “what in the world happened to my—er, the barn?!”

“Well, _technically_ , Lapis threw it at a fifty foot tall intergalactic dictator, but we’ve retroactively claimed it as a kinetic meep morp entitled _Yeet_.”

“.... Yeet?” Andy asks weakly.

“ _Yeet_ ,” Peridot nods solemnly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Double today to make up for yesterday! Sorry, friends. I was beat, lol.


	35. Empathy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt_ : The capture of a corrupted gem with the help of the new gems (cause I'm pretty sure they didn't catch every single one yet)

They’ve been tracking a corrupted gem for hours now, traversing the arid canyons near the Beta Kindergarten in the hopes that the Agate turned giant, blue land snake will pop up and… _well_ … hopefully not eat them.

Biggs is quieter than any Jasper Steven has ever known, but when she _does_ speak, she makes every word count.

“I don’t really remember what it’s like to be corrupted,” she says. “I just have vague flashes of it—pain ’n fear ’n confusion.”

Absentmindedly, she touches the horns on her forehead.

“No one deserves to feel that way, not even an Agate.”


	36. Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt_ : Steven visits Homeworld

Homeworld’s nights are red and lonely, so Steven does what he’d do on any bad night in Beach City.

He searches out family…

… and finds White Diamond in the observatory, mapping out sundry coordinates on a star map.

“Hi,” Steven says as she lowers her hand for him.

(She holds him quite gently.)

(It’s a far cry from how she held him before.)

“I’m looking for collapsing gas giants,” she replies in quiet greeting. “We could potentially harness their massive energies to revitalize Homeworld.”

“No more colonies?” The question is hopeful.

“Only stardust and nebulae.” White Diamond’s smile is slight.


	37. Shipping

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt_ : Peridot introduces someone to the wonders of shipping/the internet

“LAZULI!”

Lapis glances up from her book to find a pointed, green nose in her face—Peridot, her eyes alight with excitement.

“‘Sup?”

“Did you know”—and now she plants her tablet three inches from Lapis’s own nose—“that there’s an online infrastructure dedicated to humans who also want Percy and Pierre together?!”

From her vantage point, Lapis can only make out a blue background and a word that sorta looks like tummy.

“Apparently, it’s called shipping, which makes no linguistic sense given the function of a ship, but nyehehe, who cares? Humans are weird!”

“Ha, I’ll cheer to that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> R.I.P. to Peridot's youth and innocence approximately one week after this piece.


	38. Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt_ : Steven sets up a date for Blue and Yellow Diamond

When Blue and Yellow Diamond find themselves in the observatory deck alone together, with no trace of Steven in sight, eyebrows are raised, and explanations are traded.

“Steven said that he wished to stargaze with me tonight.”

Yellow’s smile is wry. “And I was told that if I didn’t come here as soon as possible, some unspecified spectral figure was going to haunt my dreams.”

“Silly boy,” Blue laughs lightly. “Diamonds don’t dream.”

“That’s what _I_ told him, and yet”—she snorts indelicately—“here I am anyway.”

“He has us right where he wants us.”

“I suppose I can’t complain.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Double today! Sorry for being behind. (I'll probably post a double tomorrow as well!)


	39. Education

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt_ : White Diamond tries to ask Greg how Steven even happened

As white as Beach City’s sands are, they dull in comparison to White Diamond, whose radiance and ethereality is unparalleled.

Which is precisely why Greg is _so_ not prepared for the very human question she proposes to him this fine summer day.

“Tell me, Greg… how exactly was Steven formed?”

“Um, uh…” He gapes at her wildly. (Heck, it’d been bad enough when he’d had to explain it to Amethyst.) “Well, er, when two people love each other, and the flower is in full bloom, uh…”

To his chagrin, thorough observer that she is, the goddess has several followup questions.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This prompt, lolololol.


	40. Confession

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Writer's Choice:_ While waiting for Steven to return with Ruby, Pearl and Sapphire talk about Rose.

All out of tears, and with nothing left to do but wait, Pearl and Sapphire prop themselves up against Steven’s bed.

Sun from the nearby window sets across their faces.

Rose’s portrait smiles serenely at them from above.

“For thousands of years,” Sapphire murmurs, “I’ve envisioned so many likely paths. This was never one of them.”

Frost gathers at the hem of her dress.

Pearl lifts her face from her hands.

“It’s not on you,” she whispers, she confesses. “We… we covered our tracks well.”

A pause, but then she adds, “I used to think that was a good thing.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cheers to 40/150! We're 27% there! Thank you guys so much for your continued support on "Fragments II"!


	41. Comfort

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt:_ If you're taking prompts, would you be down for Peridot comforting Amethyst about being puppeted by WD?

With a dramatic _whoosh_ , Peridot plops down on the beach next to Amethyst, grinning as the confetti of sand showers them in white, but instead of eliciting a laugh from the usually boisterous Quartz, all she gets is a noncommittal grunt.

Peridot frowns and then guesses, “Still thinking about White Diamond?”

Because they’ve _almost_ had this talk before.

Several times over.

“Yeaaaahh,” Amethyst sighs. “It’s whatever.”

She’s said _this_ —several times over.

“It’s not whatever, though. She hurt you,” Peridot tries. (She’s not very good at this sort of thing, but she _tries_.) “But she didn’t… she couldn’t… _unmake_ you.”


	42. Mine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt_ : Blue Pearl finally being free to express herself without being dragged down because of her Diamond's emotions

The earthling prince bequeaths her with what he calls a canvas, a paintbrush, and a palette of many colors.

“They’re yours,” he grins brightly.

Blue Pearl frowns. “Mine?” 

The word is alien on her tongue; nothing has ever been hers, been _mine_ before.

“Yours,” the prince nods and bops her lightly on the nose with the tip of the paintbrush.

Alone, Pearl stares at the blank state, and the blank slate stares back at her. 

She could paint her lustrous Diamond in harsh lines and harsher angles.

(Old habits and ancient programming die hard.)

She dips her paintbrush in gold.


	43. Guilt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt:_ The Diamonds all "suppressing" their consciences over the centuries, showing them having doubts about what they're doing before Change Your Mind, and if it's right.

They carry it with them like the stones on their heads and chests.

A feeling.

A sensation.

Unnameable.

Unpleasant.

One cycle, White Diamond’s lips curl with it when the tips of her black claws leach Pink Pearl of all of her brightness, her warmth.

And one cycle, Yellow Diamond’s fist shakes with it as her judgment thunders down on a Citrine whose last word is a scream.

And one cycle, it’s all over Blue Diamond’s tall hands; she tries so hard to wash off all of the shards.

They bleed her palms and condemn them.

There are just so many.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, guys—so sorry for the unannounced hiatus. School got incredibly stressful this past week, and, like, I kind of just gave up the ghost, lol.
> 
> I know I'm rather far behind, but here's four to make up for it! I'll try to catch up entirely sometime next week.
> 
> Hope you've all been doing well!!


	44. Wrong

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt:_ Related to the first one [#43], the Diamonds each realizing that, well, they were in the wrong.

In the tower, Blue Diamond’s carefully constructed world falls to pieces; she is thousands of years old, and she is thousands of years _wrong_.

“I didn’t… I’m doing it again, aren’t I?”

Yellow Diamond is on her damn knees, and there’s something working its way through her chest and up the column of her throat.

It feels so _wrong_ , and she has always been the same.

When Blue’s arms envelop her head, the stalwart general weeps.

The bridge of White Diamond’s nose erupts in pink, and though she has never been anything less than perfect, today she _might_ just be—


	45. Cycles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt_ : Another Diamond prompt - the Diamonds trying to apologize to Pink/Rose at some point. She doesn't accept it because of all she went through due to them.

Three cycles have passed, and Pink Diamond has been stretched out in the darkness for just as long, watching the nothingness on the walls, watching the lone window watching her.

Tears drip and dry down the curvature of her face, and then they do it again.

Over and over and over.

The sun rises and falls and rises again.

Soon, Blue Diamond will sweep into the tower and reprimand her and apologize and let her go in an act she considers to be a mercy.

Drip and dry and rise and fall.

Pink doesn’t want to forgive her this time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I deviated a _little_ from this prompt and focused on a specific Diamond who might have tried to apologize to Pink! I have a feeling that apologies were few and far between for this broken family during the time when apologies might have mattered most.


	46. Red

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt_ : Also... a few of the upper level gems starting to rebel against the new way things are going, and causing problems (even though a lot of gems are happy with the changes), and the more zealotous lower gems (like Eyeball).

“They’ve grown soft,” the red gem sneers. “Weak. _Pathetic._ All of that nonsense about how all gems are equal under the stars is just that—nonsense!” She casts her defiant glare around the chamber as though daring any of the elite gems assembled to disagree with her.

One dares.

Some stupid blue Agate or another.

“I came here for a lucrative discussion,” she sniffs, “not for you to bash our lustrous Diamonds from here to Andromeda come.”

Red Diamond’s laugh could shatter Rubies.

So sharp.

So ruthless.

So viciously cold.

“They stopped being your Diamonds a long time ago, love.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yoooooo, I want a gem rebellion like this so badly. I think it'd be an excellent conflict.


	47. Revelation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt:_ Pink Diamond seeing what White did to her pearl for the first time.

In her chamber, Rose Quartz gives way to Pink Diamond, and Pink Diamond gives way to the floor, her fists slamming hard against the quartz.

And the Renegade gives way to the Pearl, and the Pearl kneels next to her Diamond in a flurry of limbs.

“My Diam—Rose! I—”

“She said she was going to fix her,” Pink whispers, her voice low with horror. “She was going to _repair_ her and recommission her to some noblegem.”

They’d been on a mission to infiltrate White Diamond’s repository.

They’d ran into her Pearl instead.

“She took her, Pearl. _She took her_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This comes from a partial headcanon of mine that Pink didn't know what became of her original Pearl for a long time. :') (I'm torn between this and thinking that she was _there_ when it happened. Maybe I'll play around with the alternative later!)


	48. Expectations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt_ : We've learned about Rose's side of the family; what about Greg's?

“And this is my dad,” Greg says, placing his index finger over his father’s walrus mustache. The old man glowers up at him from the sepia, glowers up at him from so many memories. “We never really saw eye to eye.”

Steven squirms in his arms, adjusting his head to see the photo better.

“Why not?”

“Ah”—Greg frowns—“too many wounds, kiddo. He always wanted me to be someone I’m wasn’t—a doctor, a lawyer, an accountant. Something respectable.”

Steven nods sagely, like he’s _been there, done that_.

Which he has.

Intimately.

“They all wanted me to be Mom.”


	49. Servant

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt_ : Connie learns that Pearl used to be a slave. (Maybe Steven tells her in the aftermath of Back to the Barn?)

Connie and Steven lean over the palace balcony and watch Homeworld’s twin moons pull each other up through the dusk.

It’s a beautiful sight, undercut only by the darkness.

The dark abyss below.

The darkness all around them.

“Pearl’s shoulders are straighter around the Diamonds,” Connie murmurs suddenly. It’s a test, an admission to knowledge.

Steven flinches.

Grimaces.

“You figured it out, huh?”

“Yes.” And then she presses on. “I… I just thought she had a low self-esteem or something, but for all these years, she’s systematically devalued herself, hasn’t she?”

Steven scrubs his bleary eyes.

Sighs.

“Something like that.”


	50. Paranoia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Writer's Choice:_ Steven isn't in his bed one night.

When she doesn’t find him in his bed, Garnet’s nerves quicken, and all sorts of possibilities that _aren’t_ visions overwhelm her head.

He’s been kidnapped again.

He’s in space, lost and alone.

He’s left them.

(Once, he even _ransomed_ himself.)

Garnet finds him on the couch, curled up next to Amethyst, who is only pretending to be asleep.

She opens one of her eyes but doesn’t quite move her hand from Steven’s dark curls.

“He’s fine,” she rasps quietly.

It’s a reassurance not a challenge.

Garnet blinks beneath her glasses, curls and uncurls her fists.

“… it’s hard to believe sometimes.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we're officially a third of the way to the finish line! Thank you guys for sticking through "Fragments II." I appreciate every kind word and Kudos, and I'm hoping to catch up on comments soon! (So sorry for the delay.)
> 
> Also, my list is finally wearing down a little, lol. There are only 20-something left on it, so I should be able to open prompts again within the next couple of weeks!


	51. Free

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt:_ Pearl interacting with Blue Pearl around the timeframe of Change Your Mind?

“You look different.”

It’s a statement, an irrefutable fact, but in Blue Pearl’s quiet voice, it almost sounds like a question.

Pearl nods proudly, gently.

For the first time in thousands of years, she knows who she is—friend, renegade, mother—but staring at the royal Pearl next to her, she can scarcely forget the entity she once was—servant, plaything, slave.

“I _am_ different,” she murmurs. “I’m _free_.”

Blue flinches at this.

Casts her head around to make sure that no one is listening.

That no Diamond lurks around the corner to punish her.

It’s a scary word.

Freedom.


	52. Found

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt:_ A chat between Connie and Lapis about how Steven changed their lives and got them out of their solitude

“Before I met Steven, I used to come out to the beach and read alone,” Connie says, and she only says it because there’s a book in her lap now, but she’s no longer _alone_. Lapis tilts her head attentively. Steven and Peridot flick water and playful taunts at each other in the ocean shallows. “I hated the thought of being in town, of seeing everyone’s lives passing me by.”

Lapis shrugs a hand through her messy hair.

She smiles a bittersweet smile.

“Everyone _did_ pass me by—for thousands of years…”

The gem softens.

“… until one day, Steven didn’t.”


	53. Honeymoon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt:_ I'm a sucker for anything with Sapphire and/or Ruby outside of Garnet

When Ruby reaches across the bed of tulips to rest her palm against Sapphire’s cheek, she feels like she’s rediscovering the gem all over again.

They’ve known each other for five thousand years.

Ruby wants five thousand years more.

“We should’ve had a honeymoon _eons_ ago,” she laughs. “No—scratch that! I want ten honeymoons! A _thousand_!”

Sapphire giggles, and the sound is like water trickling down a stream.

“Every time we unfuse now, we should call the occasion a _honeymoon_.”

“A vacation apart from each other,” Ruby grins, eyes alight with possibility.

“And a chance to be together, too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more for today because I needed some fluff in my life, lol. Finals week is nearly upon me, and alas, I am a desolation in progress.


	54. Deserving

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> if your still taking requests, would you mind adding something with Connie and the Diamonds interacting to your list?

The shadows of the matriarchs consume the hillside, but once intimidated by Steven’s dictatorial grandmothers, now Connie is comfortable enough with them to sit atop of Yellow Diamond’s palm.

The view is resplendent: the fiery sunset, the crashing tides, the boy on the beach—Steven drawing a figure for them to guess in the sand.

“We hardly deserve him,” Blue Diamond murmurs. “He’s always so willing to engage us… even when we don’t do the same for him.”

“That’s just what Steven does,” Connie returns softly. “He’ll extend a hand and a smile and make you _want_ to deserve it.”


	55. Triumph

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt_ : Lars and Lapis about overcoming your fears and feeling capable to do anything for your loved one

After a month’s worth of terraforming, the Off Colors now have a pool, and Lapis has a new friend.

Lars peels off his boots, and they both roll up their pants, to dip their toes in her latest creation, to laugh when the water hits them cold.

“It’s so crazy that I’m here right now,” he says after awhile. “I mean, a couple of months ago, I was cowering _away_ from aliens, and now I’m, like, building a home with them.”

“I know the feeling. I ran away to the moon, and then I threw a barn on Blue Diamond.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, guys! Sorry for the short hiatus. I had to sell my soul to academia, lol, but finals are over now and I'm free for the summer! "Fragments" will now be back on a daily schedule.


	56. Fighter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt:_ Request: Teen!Steven listening to Teen!Connie's heartbeat

The world around him is a blur, a darkness, and he can only make out dim shapes through the veil: the Crystal Gems, the Diamonds, his gem.

All so close.

All so impossibly far.

They are swathed in fuzz, and Steven’s eyes are so heavy, and _maybe if he just closed them for a minute_ …

But then Connie is hoisting him into her arms and digging her fingernails into his shirt.

And she’s pleading with him to hold on.

And she’s fighting for him.

And she’s refusing to let go.

Her heartbeat thrums next to his head—loud, insistent, strong.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My apologies! I altered this one a bit.


	57. Irony

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt:_ maybe one where Lapis comes to terms with the news that Steven kind of is Pink Diamond and Rose Quartz, the responsible of the rebellion and what that would mean in her friendship with Steven.

Their new barn is all but complete, lacking only the details now: a coat of fresh paint, a truck or two sticking out of its side, a new TV for watching _Camp Pining Hearts_.

Lapis and Peridot perch on the roof and watch the moon slowly ascend the sky.

“You know what’s funny?”

“Humor me,” Peridot grins.

Dark eyes dance with silvery moonlight.

“I’ve spent most of my existence running away from the Diamonds… _only to end up befriending one._ ”

And then Lapis laughs— _laughs_ —the sound loud and irreverent, free and freeing.

“You just can’t make this stuff up.”


	58. Resilience

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt_ : Garnet talks with Connie about the events diamond days...and Thanks her.

“Connie?”

“Yes, Garnet?”

The lamplight settles like a crown on Connie’s thoughtful brow. She’s always thoughtful, this girl—always grappling with the world in silences.

“You were very brave on Homeworld,” she says. “I’m proud of you.”

And naturally, the girl stammers and blushes and protests that she didn’t really do anything— _it was all Steven!_ —but Garnet stops her in her tracks, places a palm on her head.

“Even when Steven was… hurt”—it’s a easier way to say dying—“you never faltered, never blanched. You kept moving.”

She pauses.

“I’m not sure we… _I_ … could have done that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for taking so many hiatuses! Honestly, when I got home, I just couldn't find it in me to use my brain anymore.
> 
> I'm going to try hard to get myself back into the swing of writing "Fragments" again, though. Thanks so much for sticking with me. c:


	59. Kindness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt:_ For a prompt could be after jasper was cured and how she is processing all that happen and what is going on around her

“You’re leaving.” It’s a statement, not a question because Jasper already has one foot on the warp pad and an awfully stiff set in her shoulders. Amethyst isn’t stupid; she knows what it looks like to run.

“There’s nothing for me here.”

(There’s friendship, love, and healing.)

The soldier’s scarred fists are clenched by her sides.

She’ll wear her green marks forever.

Even the _Diamonds_ cannot reverse such hurt.

“I can’t stand it... can’t take his pity.”

Amethyst’s eyes soften.

“Y’know, sis... it took me a long time to figure out that kindness and pity aren’t one in the same.”


	60. Adulting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Writer's Choice:_ After a long night of wrestling with their kids, Vidalia and Greg hang out on the living room floor for awhile.

The day over, their babies finally asleep, Greg and Vidalia forgo the couch for the floor, stretching out on the carpet, side by tired side.

“Ya’ve got peas in your hair,” Greg says amiably. If he’d been a little less exhausted, he might have helped her pick them out, but alas, his own beard is stained carrot orange.

“Eh? I can deal with peas,” she quips. “It’s the mashed potatoes that take forever to wash out.”

They laugh long and hard—laugh like the twenty something year old dumbasses they both are and aren’t.

“Shit,” Vidalia grins. “We’re adults.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The era between Rose have Steven and Steven going to live with the gems is such a fun one to think about. I like to imagine that Vidalia and Greg were really close there for awhile, raising their kids together in the same house.
> 
> Also, 60/150!! Heck yeah! Thank you for every kind word and Kudos. We're almost halfway there!


	61. Sardonyx

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt:_ Also, everything with Sardonyx.

When Sardonyx fuses for the first time, she doesn’t come undone for a _whole_ week straight, all but forcing Rose and Amethyst to attend her nightly comedy shows in the Temple.

“Ohoho, and so I told those humans that you shouldn’t take life for granite! _Granite_!” She wipes at her tears with one set of hands and hugs her hips with the other. “Can you imagine?”

“Ugh, I don’t have to imagine,” Amethyst whines. “We were _there_. Isn’t she ever going to get tired of herself?”

“Probably not,” Rose laughs warmly. “Our newest friend has an admirable amount of self love.”


	62. Chess

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt:_ Connie and Steven introduces The diamonds to Earth games..Hilarity (and a respectful rivalry between Yellow and Connie over Chess..or whatever game you wish) ensues.

“These rules are _asinine_ ,” Yellow Diamond scoffs, drawing her palm higher into the air so she can see the board better. “The king should be able to maneuver wherever it wants to based on its status alone. Steven, move my king to the left.”

Steven obediently moves her king piece to the left.

“In a _dictatorship_ , maybe,” Connie laughs pointedly, “but this is chess, ma’am. Steven, take that move back. It was illegal.”

Nodding furiously, Steven takes the king back.

“How absurd,” the Diamond huffs, flushing gold.

“I bet you wouldn’t be saying that if you were winning,” Connie grins.


	63. Art

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt:_ For fragments, Peridot and Lapis introducing Bismuth to meepmorps.

“Mmm, a meep morp is more than an _object_ ,” Peridot begins thoughtfully.

“And it’s not just several objects thrown together,” Lapis adds.

“Like, yes, the cracked mirror is just that—a cracked mirror—but it also symbolizes Lapis’s once fractured psyche.”

“Or whatever,” the blue gem deadpans with a shrug.

Bismuth replaces the mirror on its pedestal with a gentleness that belies the serious expression on her face.

“So… they’re things you guys make that have personal meaning, right?”

“Precisely,” Peridot grins.

“Yup.”

“Huh.” Bismuth scratches her chin. “I know _I_ craft things… but _this_? This is really something spectacular.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Listen, Bismuth, Lapis, and Peridot make an A++ trio, and I'll be bummed if we don't ever see that explored. :')


	64. Surprise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt:_ Lars and Sadie discuss how Lars didn’t try to save Sadie in “I Am My Mother.”

He surprises her everyday.

 _New_ Lars.

 _Captain_ Lars.

_Lars._

Like today, when they’re lying on her bed listening to MCR on vinyl, and he suddenly says, “I was such a coward, Sadie.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah,” he nods. “You really needed me to come through on that gem ship, and I didn’t.”

“Forget it,” she shrugs. “You were scared. Anyone would have been. It’s no big—”

But Lars shakes his head.

“You’re my best friend, and I wasn’t there for you. That sucked.”

No bullshit and no excuses.

He surprises her everyday.

“Yeah, okay...” The admission aches. “It really sucked, Lars."


	65. Kids

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt:_ Sadie and Connie discuss what it takes being involved with two pink boys.

They’re being _idiots,_ Lars and Steven—having a relay race with the heavy equipment they’re towing from Greg’s van to the stage.

“That amplifier’s _gotta_ be double Steven’s weight,” Sadie shakes her head. “It’s hard to look at him and remember that he’s, like, super strong.”

Lars lets out a triumphant whoop when he makes it to the stage with the fog machine.

“Him too,” she adds, laughing.

“Totally,” Connie grins. “But I also think that’s just part of their charm. Whatever else they are”—demigods and pink zombie boys, boys with worlds on their shoulders—“they’re also just kids.”


	66. Secondhand

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt:_ Garnet and Amethyst realize that Pearl was White Diamond's Pearl

On Pink Diamond’s balcony, Pearl’s face is shattered in moonlight.

“I… I wasn’t originally Pink’s,” she says quietly, but then she tilts her head to the side, catches the message implicit in the firm set of Garnet’s lips. “But you already guessed that, didn’t you?”

“Huh?” Amethyst looks wildly between them as their leader nods once.

“Your gem,” she murmurs. “White Pearl’s gem.”

Her name had been Pink Pearl.

She’d been broken.

Repurposed.

_Desecrated._

“White Diamond created me toe the lines my predecessor couldn’t.” Pearl scrapes one thumb over another. “But that never quite worked out the way she intended.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> S/O to thesometimeswarrior for helping me come up with a title for this one!
> 
> And just letting you guys know, only eleven prompts left 'til I open up requests again! I can't wait to see what you guys come up with.


	67. Sunny

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt:_ One last one - Sunstone. Cheesy as it may seem, I grew up with PSA characters (the more you know!), so I wanna see her come back.

After saving a cat from a tree, raving with the cool kids, beating the high score on the new _Meat Beat Mania_ machine, telling Mayor Nanefua she looks rad today, running a couple of miles on the beach, and slamming a dozen donuts… Sunstone _still_ has energy left to burn.

Their shadow flickers on the boardwalk as they walk next to Onion.

“Little dude, haven’t you ever heard of stranger danger? Ya shouldn’t be out this late without adult supervision.”

“Mah, mah, mah, mah!” Onion protests.

“Ahaha, fair enough!” the fusion laughs. “But that’s a gnarly mouth you’ve got there.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing this one made me realize that Garnet fusions are way more theatric than we give _her_ credit for, lolol.


	68. Handwriting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt:_ Steven, Connie, Lars, and Surprising Doug takes a course in Gem writing..Chaos and hilarity ensues and Doug is a genius of cryptography.

Slightly pompous and extremely proud, Pearl peers over each of her pupils’ shoulders to see if they’ve mastered the symbol for Homeworld.

“Beautiful work, Connie!” She pats her protégé’s head.

“Nearly there, Lars. Just make sure your lines are neater!”

“Oh, goodness, Doug! This is technically _and_ aesthetically perfect! Well done!”

And then finally…

“ _Steven_ ,” she sighs exasperatedly. “You’ve drawn the diamonds in the wrong order! Clockwise, it’s supposed to be white, blue, pink, yellow—not white, yellow, pink, blue!”

Her boy grins up at her, all mischief.

“Whatcha gonna do, Pearl? _Ground_ me?”

“Possibly,” she laughs. “Now try again.”


	69. Change

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Prompt:_ Garnet and Rhodonite hang out.

They’re sitting side by side, shoulders just barely brushing, watching the sun sink low into the horizon beyond the Kindergarten.

“This is my thirtieth sunset,” Rhodonite murmurs, “but I still can’t get over all the colors—how many there are in this sky.”

Orange seeping into gold charring into a blue and pink and purple night.

Garnet taps her visor away, a gentle smile on her lips and in her eyes.

“I still haven’t after five _thousand_ sunsets. No sky, no person, no moment is ever the same here.”

“It’s a scary thought.”

“Yes.”

“… but it’s also a lovely one.”

 


	70. Calcification

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Writer's Choice:_ After Pink, Blue Diamond doesn't take care of herself.

The walls watch in silence as Yellow Diamond lowers herself onto the edge of the pool.

She clenches a comb in one hand and gathers silvery hair into the other.

The Diamond beneath her is a calcification, stone and grief and stone.

“You’re not taking care of yourself.” Yellow’s voice is harsh; her fingers are anything but as they maneuver the comb through damp, lank strands. “It’s unbecoming. You’re a Diamond, a  _leader._  Gems expect better of you.”

Blue's words cut sharper than any weapon the general has ever known.

“No, _you_ expect better of me, Yellow. There’s a difference.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 70/150!!


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